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BACKGROUND:

The animal research department at the University of California,
Davis, is under fire after seven monkeys were killed over the
weekend. The university said the deaths were caused by a problem with
a heating and air conditioning system. (Full news article appears
after contact information.)

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please ask the US Dept. of Agriculture to fully investigate this
tragedy. Encourage UCDavis to proceed with a medical research
expansion, minus the animal component.

Points To Make:

*Enormous physiological variations exist among human and nonhuman
animals. In many cases, animal studies do not just hurt nonhuman
animals and waste money; they harm and kill humans, too.

*The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine reports that
sophisticated non-animal research methods are more accurate, less
expensive, and less time-consuming than traditional animal-based
research methods. Patients waiting for helpful drugs and treatments
could be spared years of suffering if companies and government
agencies would implement the efficient alternatives to animal
studies. Fewer accidental deaths caused by drugs and treatments would
occur if the more accurate alternatives were used.

*Many noted physicians have spoken against vivisection. Dr. Albert
Sabin, who developed the oral polio vaccine, testified at a
congressional hearing: "[p]aralytic polio could be dealt with only by
preventing the irreversible destruction of the large number of motor
nerve cells, and the work on prevention was delayed by an erroneous
conception of the nature of the human disease based on misleading
experimental models of the disease in monkeys" (Stoller, Kenneth,
M.D., "Animal Testing: Why a Doctor Opposes It," The Orlando
Sentinel, June 25, 1990.). Dr. Charles Mayo, founder of the Mayo
Clinic, stated, "I abhor vivisection. It should at least be curbed.
Better, it should be abolished. I know of no achievement through
vivisection, no scientific discovery, that could not have been
obtained without such barbarism and cruelty. The whole thing is evil"
(Quoted by William H. Hendrix, New York Daily News, Mar. 13, 1961).

*Vivisection is immoral. Non-human animals are not research tools.
They are individuals capable of experiencing not only crude emotions
like fear, but far more subtle and complex emotions such as love,
grief, pride, shame, joy, and loneliness.

DAVIS, Calif. -- The animal research department at the University of
California, Davis, is under fire after seven monkeys were killed over
the weekend.

The university said the deaths were caused by a problem with a
heating and air conditioning system. They said the system got stuck
on heat, and that before anybody realized something was wrong, most
of the monkeys were already dead.

UC Davis officials said the monkeys' deaths have saddened the entire
research staff. The director of the UC Davis Primate Center, Dallas
Hyde, said the monkeys were left unattended overnight inside a
temporary housing facility on campus.

Officials said the temperatures inside the room reached 115 degrees.
The monkeys' water ran out, and seven of the eight that were in the
room died of dehydration.

"I'm heartbroken over this, that we lost these animals. But it's not
just their death; it's the way they suffered while they died," Hyde said.

The incident came a year-and-a-half after another UC Davis monkey was
killed when it was apparently swept down a drainage system.

Earlier this month, animal rights activists protested in Davis and
filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"The big picture is that when we keep wild and dangerous animals in
captivity, anything can happen. And we really need to look at the
animal welfare concerns as well," said Animal Protection Institute
spokeswoman Nicole Paquette.

For the past few years, the university has been trying to build new
monkey housing, but the construction has not kept pace with a monkey
population that has now grown to 4,700.

The rest of the monkeys that were in the temporary housing facility
were moved to another location where researchers can keep a better
eye on them.

"Even though it makes it a little more cramped for space here, we
have to be sure this never happens again," Hyde said.

UC Davis uses monkeys to study diseases like asthma, autism and aids.
But the particular monkeys that were killed were not used directly
for research. They were used for breeding.

The university said its last three spot checks by federal inspectors
came back "perfect." The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it's
looking into this latest incident and will decide if an investigation
is necessary.